Blood Mage: bones, HP costs and Wisdom equipment

Most Blood Mage spells consume one bone when a bone is available, or the listed HP when none remain. They do not charge both resources for the same cast. Crimson Renewal is the exception: that heal always spends the Blood Mage’s HP.

Bones change the casting budget

Rank-1 Blood Lance costs one bone or 6 HP. Rank-5 Blood Lance still consumes one bone when available, but its boneless cost rises to 14 HP. The increasing HP line is therefore important after the shared inventory runs out, even if a large bone supply made earlier casts appear cheap.

Keep bones and skulls collected during exploration. The cost uses available bone items from shared inventory; it does not create a personal mana pool. Crimson Mask reduces boneless HP costs by one, but does nothing to the one-bone price when bones are present.

Crimson Renewal transfers the caster’s health to an ally. At rank 1 it costs 5 HP and restores 5; at rank 5 it costs and restores 25. Do not plan on a bone protecting an injured caster from that cost.

Bleed and execution skills

Blood Lance can start a Bleed. Exsanguinate requires a target that is already bleeding, then directly increases the ongoing damage and remaining duration. Ordinary reapplication uses a different merge rule: Bleed and Exsanguinate shows the arithmetic.

Leechcraft unlocks at hero level 5 and returns part of Blood damage as health, from 10% at rank 1 to 50% at rank 5. Blood Lance and Bloodfall are 30% weaker against Undead, so healing expectations based on a living enemy do not carry unchanged into a crypt.

Mark the Dead opens at level 2 for this class and increases damage taken by a close enemy. It also satisfies a Ranger’s Execution Shot condition.

Endurance does not replace Wisdom

Endurance is the class’s main stat, but several Blood Mage items require Wisdom: Crimson Ring and Crimson Edge Ring need 4, Crimson Mask needs 5, and Mantle of Bloodflow needs 7. Check these requirements before minimizing Wisdom.

Patch 1.0.5 fixes item skills incorrectly consuming Blood Mage bones or HP. Distinguish a class spell from a skill granted by equipment when checking a cost on the current release. The class reference keeps this exception beside the resource rules.